Heart And Soul
by Brigadier-Erin-Lightning
Summary: Future Arc Spoilers / Years have passed and now, at his end of days, Asbel Lhant returns to the end of his journeys with a unique favor to ask of the one person he never thought he'd see again.


**Heart And Soul**

**_A Tales of Graces (F) fanfiction by Erin R Lightning_**

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><p>The stone lift shuddered to life, the light of the Lastalia's eleth flooding across its face in intricate patterns, woven like sunlight through the mossy stone as it, and the withered rider upon it, descended for what would be their final journey.<p>

Though he'd seen it dozens of times before, more than any other man alive, the light of the Lastalia still took Asbel's breath away. He had grown old. His body ached and his mind felt weary. He could almost hear the creak of his worn bones as the lift slowed to a stop and he stepped from it into the seemingly endless cavern that was the core of a once-dead, now thriving planet. His shoulders were hunched and it was easy to see that he was putting much of his weight onto the withered cane he grasped between gnarled fingers. His fiery red locks had dulled with age and gone gray, though the style had changed little save for it being gelled back a bit so that his bangs stayed out of his eyes, which, for all their decades of life, were still as bright and blue as the summer sky.

Even in the twilight of his life, he bore a striking resemblance to his father, Aston.

As he came to a stop, just feet from the core itself, he mused good-naturedly if his old friend would even recognize him. He let his gaze wander up, his eyes squinting at the brightness; opened his mouth to speak, only to be stricken by a choking cough that wracked his tired frame, the pain shooting through him as he felt his heart flutter in his breast like a bird longing to be free of its cage. His knees buckled under him and he reached a hand up to his mouth, tasting iron on his lips as his fingers came away stained red. His time was nearing its end, but he shook his head.

"Lambda, are you there?" The words sounded weak and breathy, barely a whisper in the enormity of the cavern. No answer. But he was there; Asbel knew it, just as he had known every time he had come to the core since. But this time he hadn't come to speak one-sidedly with his own echoes.

With every ounce of strength left in him, he forced his legs to straighten and let the cane fall away, taking that final step forward and reaching out his fingers to the Fodran core, feeling the wild and untamed eleth emanating around them. Intense heat shot up his arm, the pain dancing on the edges of the next wave which seemed to fill every inch of his body with a soothing chill. A rushing, raging tempest of emotions followed – millions of feelings and thoughts stemming from every living creature on the planet forcing themselves into his mind, becoming his own and then, he thought he must have been mistaken, a hand reaching out and grabbing his own, pulling him down into peaceful darkness.

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><p>When his eyes finally opened, Asbel felt the familiar feeling of floating effortlessly in the emptiness of a shared mind space. But he wasn't expecting to find himself – or rather, himself at eighteen – staring back at him with intense violet eyes, a shy young Sophie cowering behind him. The words caught in his throat – his eyes closing briefly to see the image of Sophie as an adult as he had left her on Ephinea, sitting amongst the flowers, her tears dropping onto her flowers and creating blossomgales all around them both as he had embraced her one last time and then stepped into the shuttle.<p>

His eyes opened again. "Sophie?"

The shy Sophie-lookalike slipped further behind young Asbel. "This one is not Sophie," she replied, with a distinct and familiar voice. "She is whom you know as Little Queen."

"But then why do you look like-"

"She merged her form and some of her consciousness with Protos Heis. She sees the world now through Protos Heis' eyes and as such has given herself a similar form for you to see her by. Much as I have," the young Asbel answered. "Asbel. It's been a long time."

Asbel felt the corners of his lips lifting into a smile. Something stirred deep inside of him and his eyes shone as if he might cry. "Lambda," he said, greeting his old friend. "It's the first time you've used my name."

Lambda glanced behind himself and patted Little Queen on the shoulder reassuringly before closing the gap between himself and Asbel effortlessly, every footstep setting off a shimmering reflection in the air, like tiny ripples across a pond. As he reached Asbel, his hand came up to rest on Asbel's cheek. "You fool," he whispered. "Why did you come? Do you not remember my warnings about the planet's core? Your body and your mind will likely be destroyed if you do not leave now."

"Is it foolish to want to say goodbye to an old friend?" Asbel replied, effortlessly. His arms enveloped Lambda's body in a warm embrace. For a half a second, the younger Asbel's form flickered from itself to the form of the small child Lambda had once been and back, his eyes widening in surprise.

"You will die," Lambda said, once he had regained control of his emotions. He fixed his hard violet eyes on Asbels', pressing his shoulders to hold him back.

Asbel shook his head, his quirky grin filling his features with life. "Don't worry. I won't." He stepped back from Lambda and returned the look, but with eyes that were warm and gentle. "Because I came to ask a favor."

"A favor?" Lambda mused.

Asbel closed his eyes. He saw Cheria's grave in the garden, surrounded by Sophie's sopherias. He saw Pascal's tomb amongst the Amarcian Enclave, now fallen to ruins after the migration of the Amarcian people back to Fodra. He saw the regal coffin of King Richard as he remembered it, displayed for all the people to see before the valkines cryas – and the crowd of one thousand people kneeling around it – a send-off to the most beloved king who had ever lived. He thought of Malik, who had one day vanished without a trace, though he had always known that his teacher was gone, and of Hubert – Hubert, whose grave now lay beside Aston's and Kerri's, a Lhant to the end.

Asbel was the last.

But the memories were not all sad. He thought of his and Cheria's son, climbing the friendship tree under the warm sun, Sophie watching from afar. He thought of Pascal and Hubert's three daughters, all successful engineers right here on Fodra, and their one son who had stayed behind to inherit the title as Ambassador of Strahta and who Asbel had last heard was engaged to Queen Sophia, Richard's only daughter. The friends he loved might be gone, but their memories would live on in the ones they left behind.

After what seemed an eternity, he opened his eyes. "I want Little Queen to absorb me."

Little Queen gasped.

"What?" Lambda replied. It was the one and only time Asbel could recall ever seeing him flustered. "Nonsense. Even if she could absorb your mind, your body…"

Asbel's will burned, the last remnant of his heroic spirit. "I don't want you to be alone. You, or her," Asbel looked at Little Queen, who took a shy step backward. "Lambda; I'm old, but I'm not ready to go yet. It might be selfish, but I want to live on. By your side. I want to protect you, and keep an eye on everyone I've ever loved. You of all people should understand that."

"I'm not human, Asbel," Lambda replied quietly, but the argument was a weak one at best. He knew the all-consuming need for survival. And he knew the desire to protect. But more than that, he knew Asbel. With a final sigh of resignation, Lambda turned to Little Queen. "Will you do it?" he asked.

Little Queen had always been afraid of humans. Humans had ravaged her lands; they had captured and hurt her. Humans had bred her to hate, then defeated her and made her ashamed of almost wiping out their entire species. Through Sophie's eyes, she had seen all of their goodness, their love, their tenderness. And she had seen Asbel. For years and years and years, the one thing she remembered the most was the kind man who had believed in kindness and who had kept room in his heart for even herself and Lambda. And now it was Asbel who stood across from her with fear in his eyes, fear that she might reject him.

"Yes," she said, through teary eyes, walking forward to stand beside Lambda. "Yes, this one will do it." 'This one is sorry for her actions, sorry for misunderstanding. This one will try to save the one who taught her to trust, and hopefully be forgiven,' she thought to herself.

"Oh, thank you!" Asbel cried with relief. He wrapped his arms around Little Queen, who went stiff with surprise as he did so, and then looked, blinking curiously, down into his eyes. No one, especially not Lambda, had ever looked at her with such compassion. She returned the embrace and felt a smile starting to spread across her face as she lowered them both slowly to the ground, cradling the old man's head in her arms as he lay across her lap. Lambda didn't look at them; he stared off into the distance coldly. Asbel knew that look too well; Lambda was trying to pretend he didn't care. Let him; he never needed to say anything; Asbel had always known his heart.

After a few moments, Little Queen placed a hand over Asbel's own. She could feel it slowing. "It is time," she said, keeping one hand steady over his chest while the other went to cover Asbel's eyes. "Relax. This one will begin to assimilate you."

Asbel nodded. He felt so tired and now, relieved. He looked up at Little Queen and thought of how, were any of the others here, they would surely have scolded him – in his place, they would have been worried that something might go wrong, would have been afraid of dying. But Asbel just felt at peace. He had nothing to lose. He knew that this was right. He and Lambda and Little Queen would watch over Sophie and the worlds they had all come to love forever. His eyes fluttered closed.

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><p>What came next was disconjointed and came in rushes of light and sound, image, thought, and feeling in a dream-like haze.<p>

Little Queen's birth in the planet's core; how she left the core and its safety to go to the surface of the planet she had always been so curious of and instead found the earth ravaged and drilled deep, the cryas that the core had worked so hard to produce scattered and shattered by human hands; how she had cried for the very first time and felt the pain of the world closing in around her, only to be captured by the Amarcian excavation team and forced into experiments. How they had created Lambda and Protos Heis from her own flesh and yet would not let her see them. All of her pain, swirling, becoming a red veil of hatred….and then a bright light that receded at Sophie's touch following her defeat at the Lastalia. Then a warm voice – Lambda's – and images of times past, what Asbel recognized must have been stories to soothe her.

First, the usual: the birth, Cornell, the crash….then Richard…but those were all sped-up and had a strange sepia tone to them, like watching an old-time movie on fast forward. Then came Lambda's battle with Asbel and their pact, much more slowed town, followed by his deep slumber and the crystal clear memory of Asbel holding him as he drifted into his slumber, crying, begging him not to go. Seconds later it seemed, Lambda was shielding them from the monsters in the Ghardia Shaft. Asbel was thanking him, but that thought drifted off into…perplexingly, the most mundane of memories.

"What are crablettes?" Lambda had asked one day, as Sophie chattered away in the background with the Captain.

"Oh, crab omelettes!" Asbel had replied. "It's uhm, well, it's food and it's really delicious."

"I know what food is, you fool," Lambda had replied harshly, but deep down, Asbel could now hear a voice he hadn't heard before – a voice that must have been Lambda's own, private thoughts. 'Crablettes. I want to try them some day.'

The image shifted. Lambda was awake – Asbel could see his swirling, multi-colored essence - but it was evident that Asbel as asleep. Lambda was troubled. There was a conflict raging inside of him – Asbel could see his luminescence shifting from red and black to gold and violet and back again, a light blue fading in and out at the very center. His thoughts rang out in Asbel's mind. 'We are so close to Protos Heis. We could destroy her now, seize this fool's body, end her and return to the light – we could never be hurt again. But…' Asbel saw flashes of the core and of it holding him, killing him, as its eleth flowed into him. '…I would miss him," Lambda admitted, and Asbel felt his sense of loss and loneliness, a mirror to the shadow Little Queen had been when they had first met her…

….and Lambda had protected Asbel and his friends. Asbel had never known before, but now he felt, in tune with the memory, Lambda's fading spirit. It had taken a good chunk of energy for him to put himself out there like that, and Asbel had never thanked him enough. He watched, as if watching a movie, as each of his friends had in turn had a moment with Lambda prior to the final showdown with Little Queen. It was touching. They had never told him about it before, but each moment seemed to make Lambda that much more human.

Lambda's words with Richard, especially, echoed through his head: "We both owe this man so much."

Beneath the cold exterior, there was someone so unbelievably human….

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><p>He returned to Little Queen's arms, but not to his body. Instead he seemed to drift above, watching as his withered old body began to break down into eleth particles, which floated away into the core. Lambda turned below, alarmed.<p>

"Little Queen, what's happening?" Lambda demanded. When there was no answer, he disappeared and reappeared beside Asbel and Little Queen, one hand shaking her hard on the shoulder, but Asbel could feel his recognition – Lambda knew that Little Queen was too far involved in this, that if he were to break her concentration, he might seriously damage both her and his friend. So instead his hand found Asbel's, but the unconscious body's fingers were already slipping through his grasp, fading away. Worry turned to fear.

"Asbel?" Lambda cried. "Asbel! Don't go, please – Asbel, you can do this, I know you can! Don't leave me!" A pause. "I didn't even get to say goodbye…" Lambda's soul was in turmoil. Asbel could feel his hatred at himself for not being able to trust Asbel, for not being able to be by his side until now, until it might be too late. He wanted to open his mouth, to tell Lambda it would all be all right, but he fell back into memories.

He saw through Sophie's eyes as she waited in the hallway of Lhant Manor. Heard the crying of a baby in the distance. As Sophie opened the door, there he stood over Cheria and in his arms was cradled a small baby boy, just minutes old. "May I hold the baby?" Sophie asked. Asbel had told her sure. The baby shifted into focus as Sophie took him in her arms and looked down at his tiny little face. "Hi, I'm your sister, Sophie! What's your name?" Sophie had asked. Asbel told her the baby's name. Lambda's heart broke and a wash of joy flooded through the image as it faded away.

"His name is Lambda," Asbel had said. "Lambda Lhant."

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><p>A jolt and he was back in his body, or all that was left of it. Lambda's head was pressed against his chest, which had become a ghostly, see-through color. His hands clutched what he could of Asbel's eleth desperately, unmoving. "Lamb…da…"<p>

"Asbel!" Lambda replied. "Asbel, I'm…sorry…" The words were strained. "I shouldn't have let you go through with this."

Asbel shook his head. He felt…happy. The tears that slid down his face were not of sadness for what he was losing, but of happiness from all of the fond memories he had been given as his final respite. As he cried silently, the tears fell from cheeks and dropped into the shared mind space. They seemed to fall forever. "It's all right. It will all be…all right."

Little Queen opened her eyes slowly, as if coming out of a dream of her own. "It is done," she said, looking down at Asbel. "This one has done all she can. But your body is no more. And your mind…" She shook her head and averted her eyes; there was a weariness about her that spoke volumes to how hard she had tried to save him and how angry she was that she hadn't been able to. "This one has given you a part of herself to stave off the eleth, but…"

"What if I-" Lambda started, but Little Queen just shook her head. It could not be helped.

"Thank you, Little Queen," Asbel said. He laid one hand over hers, which had lingered over his heart. Lambda looked furiously at Little Queen, but at Asbel's touch, his head turned back. "I wanted….to try those crablettes with you," Asbel said, with a small smile. "And take you to meet Lambda, someday." He felt so exhausted. It took every effort to keep his eyes open now and the darkness was so inviting. He could feel, through Lambda's sorrow, the little spark of happiness in him at the fond memory. But he didn't smile. Asbel shook his head. "When you think of happy things….you're supposed to smile….like this…." He smiled with every last bit of his energy and felt rewarded when Lambda, his body reverting back to its childlike self, looked back at him with the same goofy grin, but as he did so, his hand touched Asbel's face one last time.

From the oncoming darkness, a memory – Lambda's memory – filled Asbel's mind. Asbel, remaining behind as his friends left the Lastalia, one hand outstretched toward the core, his fingers not even an inch away. "Goodbye, Lambda," he had whispered. He had never heard an answer. But now, in the memory space, he saw Lambda on the other side of the core mimicking his reach. "Live on, my friend."

Asbel nodded to the dream. "But for now…I think I'll…take a little…nap…" His eyes started to close. Lambda's panic filled him, but he only smiled. "I'll be….right here, Lambda. Always." As he closed his eyes, what remained of his form burst into a brilliant light and Lambda pulled him close to his chest, the eleth particles settling all over the small child's face and hands, tiny specks of wonderously brilliant light.

A single tear fell down Lambda's cheek. Just like Asbel's had, it seemed to fall forever.

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><p>Asbel no longer existed. Not as he had been, that is. Not as coherent thought or feeling. Not with a defined mind or body. The core had been too strong for even his indomitable spirit. But every so often, when Lambda thought of him or gazed upon Sophie's thoughts with Little Queen, he felt a warmth deep in his chest, like the arms of an old friend embracing him.<p>

And when he finally took that long journey with Little Queen, he was shocked to find Asbel in everything he touched, everywhere he looked. Because Asbel hadn't died. He had simply become the very eleth that coursed through the planet. He had become the world which he so loved. And despite all that Lambda had thought, he lived on.

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><p><strong>End.<strong>


End file.
